


His Favorite Odds

by Artemis1000



Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Banter, Flirting, M/M, Post-Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Robot/Human Relationships, Undercover Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-04-06 22:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14067171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis1000/pseuds/Artemis1000
Summary: Lando is on a mission to sabotage an Imperial communications array with K-2SO. He's also on a mission to charm the salty droid. How lucky for Lando that he's good at multi-tasking.





	His Favorite Odds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ciliegio](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ciliegio/gifts).



> Thank you for your wonderful prompts and May the Fourth Be With You!

Lando Calrissian folded his hands behind his head and crossed his ankles, looking for all the world like he was sunbathing on the tropical beaches of Panto Prime instead of reclining on an Imperial prison cot.

Upon a second, closer look, his cell was still small, drab and depressingly effective at holding its prisoners, just as Imperial cells tended to be. There wasn’t even a convenient air duct for him to slip into, never mind one large enough to fit his companion.

“You know, when Mon Mothma asked me to go on a mission impersonating the Imperial upper crust I had hoped it would end up somewhere a little more glamorous.”

Slouched on the edge of the other cot, K-2SO lifted his head. His photoreceptors brightened to a pure white. “I tried to tell you the likelihood of our incarceration but you said you didn’t want to hear it.” With the viciousness of a familiar, often-repeated complaint, he added, “but why would anyone listen to me, my specialty is only strategical analysis.”

Lando sat up in one fluid motion and turned so he was facing K-2. “I didn’t tell you I don’t want to hear it, I just said my odds were better this time than they usually are.”

K-2’s vocoder made a staticky noise which sounded distinctly like a huff. “Do you expect me to feel reassured by that?”

Lando smiled. It wasn’t the Calrissian Special, the one he reserved only for very special occasions when he needed people to throw all common sense and caution to the wind in exchange for one dazzling smile, but it came close enough. It was a lot more genuine as well. “Never.”

The droid straightened indignantly from his slouch and gave another huff. “Of course I would be stuck with a human who has no sense of self-preservation.”

Lando’s eyes lingered on him, and the winsome smile lingered as well, he didn’t even have to make the conscious decision. Ever since he joined up with the Rebel Alliance for good, K-2SO and he had run into another every now and then but their duties had been different enough that it never went beyond small talk. He’d enjoyed the small talk, though. There weren’t many people who bothered with small talk with droids but Lando had always understood that it’s worth paying attention to those nobody else noticed. Being invisible to most people had its perks. There was also something refreshing about K-2SO’s vicious bluntness, Lando didn’t even mind that it usually came at his own expense.

Then there had been this mission. Undercover. Playing a Coruscanti noble. With a KX droid who had to be the worst liar in the entire Rebel Alliance accompanying him. He would have liked to say it was the strangest con he had ever pulled, such an opening made for a good story, but truth was, he had done far stranger things – this one just came with better company than most.

None of these stranger things had involved K-2SO, the once-Imperial battle droid who could crush him in his large metal hands without even trying, yet preferred to battle with scathing sarcasm.

Lando stood up to pace the four large steps their cell permitted. “But I did get us into the facility,” he reminded K-2 with a cheerfulness which was only slightly amped up to irritate him. They both knew it hadn’t been the plan, right until every other plan had been closed off to them.

K-2 was charming when he was irritated. It sharpened his wit to a fine blade, something which Lando appreciated all the more since K-2 was sorely lacking in lying skills. That in itself was charming, too, yet equally disappointing. A well-crafted lie was an art form, it could beguile and ensnare if only the recipient had any appreciation for it at all. It was an art form which was, unfortunately, completely lost on his droid companion.

“Your definition of success is alarmingly flawed.”

Lando raised his hands in the air and flashed him another smile, this one skirting dangerously close to the Calrissian Special. “And yet here we are.”

He still couldn’t believe that the Imperials had been careless enough to lock K-2SO into a cell with him. Every one of Lando’s plans had counted on being solely responsible to break the two of them out, which was only fair after being solely responsible for getting them locked up.

As the sole KX droid to have changed sides, K-2SO was too valuable for a random interrogation droid to be hacking him; Lando had expected he would be shut down to be shipped off to Coruscant or at least a larger military intelligence facility. This would have given him the time to free K-2 once he had freed himself.

The poor Ensign in charge of this Imperial outpost was hopelessly out of his depth with the catch he’d made and had, in his fear to make a mistake, just locked them up and thrown away the key until someone with the right pay grade to deal with this arrived.

If Lando had been a better or a worse man he might have felt a little bit sorry for him.

His smile faded. He wished he had a chrono. He wished he could know that the next part of the plan was underway, that he hadn’t been left hanging, effectively capturing himself in a trap of his own making.

Fact was, he had no chrono and he couldn’t know what was happening outside his cell – outside the base, in fact – and so all he could do was lay down again, painting the very picture of nonchalant unconcern for the benefit of the security cams.

When you had lost everything else, you had to keep your poise at the very least.

Time was the only thing he had aplenty right now, so he went back to watching K-2SO out of the corner of his eyes. Lando had been watching him a lot during this mission, during the few short days they had spent working side by side.

There was a large number of questions he would have liked to ask K-2, and not solely because he had nothing better to do than talk. Lando had always prided himself on being able to read a man within a single short conversation but with K-2, he found himself wanting more. He yearned to dig deeper, to explore the workings of his droid mind, to understand the many twists and turns of his existence which had all led to this moment and them being locked up together in a very small cell on a very unimportant moon.

Much like there was more to the moon there was more to K-2 than what met the eye, Lando was sure.

He wanted to know how K-2 felt about being back among Imperials, if he felt only fear and dread or even a hint of wistfulness for simpler times, such as Lando felt sometimes when he was mingling with scoundrels only searching for their next con, and realized that while he still spoke and moved like them, his heart wasn’t in the same place anymore.

He wanted to know if K-2 believed all the risks he was taking were worth it for a Rebellion which, at the end of the day, would only see a droid in him, a tool, and not a fellow rebel soldier.

Most of all, Lando wanted to know if K-2 was as intrigued by Lando as Lando was by him, or if his wishful thinking was making him read tells where there were none.

There was a security cam with a tiny red light nestled in the far corner from his bunk, with a guarantee of at least one better-hidden cam and microphone somewhere out of sight.

Lando couldn’t possibly ask any of the questions he wanted to be answered.

He exhaled loudly. “I wish we had a deck of sabacc cards.”

K-2 inched his head forward. “I feel obligated to tell you your loss would be all but guaranteed.”

For the first time since they had been locked up, Lando felt genuinely baffled, nothing affected about it. “Don’t tell me you know how to count cards!”

K-2’s photoreceptors gleamed smugly. There could be no doubt in Lando’s mind that this peculiar brightness signified smugness. “Of course I do.”

His jaw didn’t drop. He was proud of the fact that his jaw didn’t drop. “As soon as we’re out of here I’m taking you to a casino.” On second thought it made sense, even. K-2SO was a master of strategical analysis and he would enjoy every opportunity to show off his own skills to organics while simultaneously making a fool of them. It was one of his most charming traits in Lando’s book.

“I did warn you you’re going to lose. If you want to lose in front of an audience I won’t stop you.”

Lando pressed his lips together to hide his smirk, then decided what the kriff and smirked anyway. And then, since he had already decided to Malachor with it all, he went all out and added a wink. “It’s on.”

K-2’s optics flickered for a moment. He tilted his head a little, regarding Lando with intense curiosity before he seemed to dismiss his line of thought and returned to his former relaxed posture.

This time, Lando stifled his smile for real. He just knew it would have ended up embarrassingly sappy but he could hardly help it that K-2 looked far too endearing when he was puzzled and tilted his head like that. Or that it made Lando feel things no self-respecting former conman should feel for anyone at all, least of all for a droid who wasn’t even _his_ partner except for this one single mission.

“That assumes you can get us out of here.”

Lando’s urge to smile died, replaced with the urge to grimace. He shifted, right ankle casually balanced on his bent left knee. Yes, the big _if_. The many variables his plan D hinged on. It was easier when he was only risking his own neck. “Trust me. I have yet to find trouble I can’t talk my way out of,” he declared for the benefit of his listeners.

 

There was no warning that the plan was underway until it was.

The lights went out in their cell and Lando jerked awake from the doze he had fallen into, instantly alert. On the other cot, he could hear K-2 shift. The droid’s photoreceptors gleamed like eerie twin points of bright white light in the complete darkness of the cell.

“Wait for it,” he whispered.

Panicked Stormtrooper voices filtered through the door of their cell in these seconds it took for the emergency generators to activate. A weaker, dimmer light lit their cell.

“Why did we not take advantage of the blackout?” K-2 asked.

Lando flashed him a grin and whispered, even quieter, “Wait for it.”

He counted up to 10. Then, again, and again – faster each time, with impatience increasingly fueled by dread.

He made it to 27 before the lights died a second time.

Outside their cell, the voices and footsteps of alarmed Stormtroopers grew more distant before they faded away altogether.

“ _Now_ you can work your magic,” Lando declared generously as he stood up, brushing some imaginary lint from his unflattering prison uniform.

K-2’s optics were the only illumination in the blackness; Lando watched him walk up to the door and get to work prying it open. When he assumed he would be alone in the cell, this had been one of the steps he had dreaded. There were ways to do it even without droid strength but it would have been a painstakingly slow and exhausting process.

For the sarcastic KX droid he called his partner on this mission, it was a matter of seconds.

There was a new spring to Lando’s step as he sauntered out of the cell – he made sure to saunter, even if he could barely see where he was going, for K-2 would be seeing him just fine.

“It will take them no more than half an hour to sort themselves out, we have to move fast. Can you find one of the emergency stashes?”

“I’m already on it,” K-2 said as he stepped past Lando and walked down the hallway, checking the walls closely for one of the regular deposits which held useful items like first aid kits – and flashlights. “I’m aware human eyesight is useless in the dark.”

“Hey now!”

“I’m just stating a statistical fact,” K-2 retorted, sounding very smug to Lando’s ears but also playful in a way he hadn’t while they were under surveillance in the cell. Lando smiled a little, he had missed the playfulness between them. “When did you sabotage the base’s power plant?”

Lando chuckled. “I didn’t. A few friends of mine did… Well, not quite, strictly speaking. It’s more like, I inspired them to steal the generators. And the backup generators as well. Imperial military-grade technology fetches a nice sum on the black market.”

“You gave them the security codes,” K-2 stated, sounding distinctly disapproving.

“You wound me, Kay.” He let a heartbeat pass for dramatic effect, a must since he couldn’t work with facial expressions in the darkness. “I sold them.”

The droid made a huff which Lando decided to interpret as amused. A moment later he returned to his side, pressing a flashlight into his hand. His large, metallic fingers remained wrapped around Lando’s for a moment longer than was strictly necessary.

His fingers felt nice on Lando’s, he could still feel their phantom touch after he had pulled away.

“Thanks, Kay,” he said and was proud of sounding only a little flustered.

 

With the time limit they had and the need to be quiet and avoid patrolling Stormtroopers, they didn’t get to talk much beyond discussing the next step of the plan.

Said next step was to make their way to the hidden core of the facility, one so secret that Lando doubted even most of the Imperials stationed here understood its significance. It was just another out-of-the-way relay station, part of the Imperial communications network, but this base was among the installations used to transmit on the most secure and heavily encrypted channels.

It was why they were here.

If everything went well and their manipulation remained unnoticed, the Rebel Alliance would be able to listen in on all the very secret messages transmitted via this relay.

“Get in, download the virus, get out without a trace to trash another place,” Lando surmised as he watched K-2 extend a thin rod from his arm to connect to a terminal. There was nothing to do but stand guard and wait for him, which meant they finally had time to talk.

K-2 looked ominous, lit up amidst the darkness in the torchlight’s cone of light. With his Imperial frame in Imperial colors, he looked like he belonged.

Lando leaned against the wall, the blaster he’d acquired from a hapless Stormtrooper casually dangling from his forefinger. “Does it ever bother you that you’re fighting your own people?”

It took longer than normal for the droid to react, the speed at which he turned his head to face him was slower, too. “The Empire aren’t my people.”

Was he distracting K-2 from his task? Lando bit down on his bottom lip, half tempted to say never mind and drop it, but when would they have another chance? As soon as they were out of this room it would be all running for their lives again. Besides, if it bothered K-2 he would be the last droid to keep quiet about the inconvenience. “They built you.”

“Many organics turn against their makers.”

“That’s true,” he admitted. He pushed himself away from the wall he had been reclining against, moving a little closer to K-2. “And Cassian’s your maker now, isn’t he? He reprogrammed you.” Or so he had gathered from the gossip mill. It always paid to be well-informed about the people you were working with.

“He is my friend,” K-2 said and turned his head to face the terminal.

Lando pursed his lips. That… could have gone better. That could have gone a whole lot better. Force, if anyone told Lobot that he was an Imperial for the Imperial cyborg parts he had Lando would be furious on his behalf. “Sorry. I was trying to understand,” Lando said, quieter and with far less boldness than he would normally defend himself with. “But I did it badly.”

“You did,” K-2 said but he was looking at Lando again and that was a point for him. “The Rebel Alliance is better than the Empire.”

It might have been enough for other people; Lando knew enough about reading between the lines to hear the unspoken _but_. The Rebel Alliance was fighting for the rights of many but droids weren’t a priority for them. They treated their droids better than the Empire, of course, it wasn’t hard to do better than the Empire, and yet…

“It’s not easy when you stand less to gain than others when the rebels win but you’ve got just as much to lose, is it?”

K-2 just looked at him. His photoreceptors were very bright in the darkness. Lando could barely stand to meet them for long. “You said _when_ the rebels win.”

He shrugged awkwardly and looked away. “Well. There’s no sense playing if you assume you’re going to lose, is there?” He snorted. “I’d rather have an escape plan just in case I do lose but sometimes you’ve got to go all in.”

And sometimes you weren’t given a choice. The Empire had made the choice for him on Bespin. There was only so much keeping your head down and staying out of trouble, watching everything and everyone you cared for getting hurt, before the weight of keeping your head down any longer would break your neck.

K-2 remained silent for very long before saying, “You don’t even want to hear the probabilities.” He sounded as uncertain as Lando had only heard him a few times before.

Lando swallowed hard. Sometimes you had to go all in. That didn’t just apply to your loyalties in wartimes. He’d been cagey so far, by his standards, and he was almost certain that K-2 didn’t know what to make of the flirting he had indulged in.

Sometimes you had to go all in, and sometimes the perfect time to up the stakes was when it looked like the game wasn’t going well for you.

He flashed K-2 one of his brightest smiles. He didn’t even have to fake it, just permit it to show on his face. “I like a good surprise… especially when it’s coming from you.”

The droid made a staticky noise and Lando flashed him a wink. Before his astonished eyes, he could see the droid straighten, then slouch anew, his photoreceptors brightening with something he would have called mischief in an organic. “That is typical irrational organic behavior. Do you want to hear the likelihood of it getting you killed?”

He didn’t laugh. K-2 wouldn’t appreciate laughter. But it was very, very close. He pretended to think. “Maybe later. Dying strikes me as more of a second date thing.”

K-2’s fans stuttered and picked up again at a faster speed. The droid tilted his head, looking adorably confused. Lando didn’t reach for him, and he couldn’t have reached anyway, but in the right illumination it looked like he was smiling and Lando found himself wanting to kiss that ghost smile. “No. You can be considerate and die _after_ the date. I just had an oil bath, scrubbing away blaster burns takes forever.”

This time, Lando did laugh. He raised his hands in mock surrender. “Duels to the death with Stormtroopers only _after_ the date. Duly noted.”

K-2 made a huffing noise. “Make sure you do. I will remind you.”

Lando was still chuckling when K-2 disengaged from the terminal and snapped the panel on his forearm closed.

The light-hearted atmosphere was once more replaced by professionalism as they made their way back into the darkened corridors of the base, more than ever aware of time working against them.

Power shouldn’t be back anytime soon. It shouldn’t. But if luck worked against them their perfect plan would see them trapped.

 

Their perfect plan entailed another sabotage to cover up the real sabotage.

That took time they didn’t have, especially since it had to look like this act of sabotage had taken them the entire time they were underfoot.

It was K-2 who insisted on explosives to blow up the base’s computer core, making it look as if they had attempted to hack it – maybe even succeeded – and then blown it to cover their theft of Imperial secrets.

It was the kind of deception within a deception which Lando could appreciate. Besides, K-2 was downright cute when he was happy to be juggling grenades.

Again, he wanted to kiss him – and maybe do other, far less innocent things, if K-2 wanted them, too – and cursed that they were running out of time.

They did make it out, but not before they had run out of time.

Luck, at least, remained faithful to Lando just this once. Nobody was more amazed than him, really.

“I don’t think I’m used to my plans actually working out,” he told K-2 as he sank onto the cot in the tiny captain’s quarters on their shuttle.

K-2, standing by the door, looked unimpressed. “You were shot.”

Lando started to shrug, then thought better of it when his injured side flared up in agonizing pain. His smile was a little more forced this time. “We pulled off the heist and got away – sounds like a success to me.”

“You have a blaster burn on your side.”

He was still wincing and softly hissing as he struggled to get his shirt over his head without irritating the large ugly burn too much. “Got it only so you can kiss it better.”

K-2 rewarded him with a scoff. “I doubt that,” he declared, all dignified indignation, yet it didn’t stop him from stepping forward and helping Lando with the shirt. He was careful, gentle even, and once the shirt was off he crouched to be at eye level with Lando. “Do you require help applying the bacta patch?”

He hesitated. It wouldn’t be the first time Lando patched himself up. But K-2’s hands had been gentle and he recalled the prickle when just their hands had touched. “I think I would like some help.”

The droid’s photoreceptors dimmed slightly. “Good. You are not as stubborn as I had expected.”

Lando’s “hey now!” was lost amidst both of them entranced by the sight of K-2’s large metal hands smoothening the bacta patch over his burn. He was so incredibly gentle. Lando had wondered how these hands would feel on his bare skin, of course he had wondered, but he had thought his touch would be cold and at least a little bit clumsy. There was nothing of that in it, though his fingers did leave goosebumps in their wake on his uninjured skin.

K-2’s fingers lingered on his skin when the bacta patch was already applied, he smoothened out the edges for a second, then a third time.

“Kay?” Lando placed his fingers over his, stilling them both. With K-2 crouching, they were finally at eye level. He had dimmed his photoreceptors for Lando’s benefit, too. “You still owe me a sabacc game.”

The droid’s head shifted forward. “Since when?” he demanded.

The corners of Lando’s lips tugged upwards into a teasing smile. “Since you told me I wouldn’t stand a chance against you.”

“This is a fact.”

“Still gotta prove it.”

“I can do that.”

Lando nodded mock solemnly. “That’s our second date then. Casino date. Between you and I we will rob the house. Maybe we won’t even get shot at next time.”

“I find that highly improbable,” K-2 scoffed.

“But are you coming?”

“You are asking me on a date,” K-2 stated, though it sounded half dubious, as if he couldn’t quite decide if he was stating a fact or asking a question.

Lando opened his mouth to tell him that this was what he had been trying to do all along. He snapped it shut again. Instead, he leaned a little closer yet, until his nose was almost touching K-2’s faceplates. He didn’t even try to stifle his smile and gave no thought to its strength. “Tell me, if I asked, what would be the likelihood of you saying yes?”

K-2’s eyes dimmed and brightened again. Up close, Lando could see the black pupil-like lenses shift this way and that. “High,” he decided. “Very high.”

“Guess what? These are my favorite odds.” Lando’s smile was dazzling bright as he finally gave in to temptation and planted a kiss right on K-2’s vocoder.


End file.
